I have a friend who purchased a Bachmann K-27 when they first came out. He is thinking of selling it to me and it has been a shelf queen and has never really run, just a test run when new. I heard that Bachmann had a upgrade to this engine, it was something to do with the running gear, not sure exactly what it was. My question does Bachmann still offer these upgrade parts and what am I looking for that needs to be replaced. Any help on this would be appreciated, thanks, trainman
John,
they offered replacement counterweights right off the bat as the originals were loose on the axles. i think they are still available. only other upgrades were offered by third partys.
AL P.
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Mine came with loose counter weights, which they replaced.
However it was geared improperly by the factory, and couldnât even pull a slight grade. Rumors spread that Barry was making replacements. I donât think that came about.
I got a new gearbox from somebody back east who made them.
Sorry, itâs been so long that I forgot who made the replacements.
Knowing you run mostly LGB engines, the K will be huge next to your other stock. It is large prototype in 1:20.3. I auditioned one on my RR and it was just too big. The distance between the cylinders made it too wide for several of my close clearance situations.
@John_Bouck It was Rodney something I think. The K that I auditioned had one of his early drives in it and it was none too smooth, but did great on my steep grade.
That would be Rodney Eddington that did the upgraded drive. My K (now in Richard Beverlyâs hands) had one.
Thanks! I couldnât remember.
Mine runs smoothly after the upgrade and can pull the 5 car Accucraft passenger set with ease.
And soon after that Rodney disappeared from the internet.
He sent me a bunch of white metal castings to evaluate. They were very nice, but he decided no to go into production on them. I was never able to get more.
Heâs a very talented guy and it was a shame he moved on.
Thanks for your answers, I do realize the engine at 120.3 scale would be large. I would probable just put in on the shelf for display, but would like to have the upgrade, just to say itâs all up to proper working order and give me peace of mind.
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He also offered me one of his drives when I was building Utility however I thought he passed away?
He may have, but I think he was around for a while after he left the net.
I have two of the Bachmann K27s. My first one I purchased 18? years ago. The second I picked up a few years ago. Despite all the grumbling, the K27 is a good loco out of the box, but like all the manufacturers, it has itâs faults. The first fault was addressed by Bachmann very quickly, the loose counterweights. You can finger test this issue, you will know if they are not upgraded. Other than that, there were no upgrades offered by Bachmann.
The original drive from Bachmann is something like 14.5:1. This will send the K down the rails at a blistering 60 or so scale miles per hour. As was mentioned, a fellow modeler Rodney Edington engineered, manufactured and in some cases installed an auxiliary drive with a ratio of about 2:1 for a final drive around 30:1 for a more scale top speed. My first K has one of these drives, and it works well. It was noisy when first installed but did quiet down over running time. This drive is no longer available, as someone stated Rodney has gone dark on the internet. I heard a rumor he switched scales to N.
Another design âfeatureâ Bachmann included was to have all 4 driver axles spring centered side play. This is not too bad on 20 foot circles, but on an 8 foot circle (Bachmann claims the K will traverse this) the springs tend to set up a sideways whip which can cause derailments. The solution for this was developed by Dave Goodson. The No 2 and No 4 axles need to have the springs replaced with spacer spools. I have done mine and it is a marked improvement.
As for the out of the box pulling, it is not the best, but is adequate if you pull appropriate narrow gauge consists. It will bog some on upgrades and run on downgrades.
I have many hours on my Ks and have far less trouble than some of the Aristo and USAT steam pattern locos seem to have.
FWIW
Ok, as I may or may not have said in a previous post the owner of the K-27 I was thinking about has now passed away and Iâm left with disposing of all his trains for his wife who knows nothing about model trains. I could probably buy the engine for any price I wanted to pay for it, but as she probably could use the money I would like to buy it at a fair price, or todayâs market value. The engine was a shelf queen for him as it was purchased new for $750 and has never had any of the upgrades done to it. On todayâs market what would you think a good purchase price would be not using eBay or another place that would have a fee. What would you say would be a good selling price among friends and giving his wife a fair price that I would feel good about and not feeling I was taking advantage of her. Just let me know what you think about that would be fair to all. thanks, trainman
There was a K-27 sale about a year ago - unused, shelf queen - on MLS, for $1,200 :
https://www.mylargescale.com/threads/bachmann-k27.94015/
Trainz has one for sale on eBay for $1600, so deduct 10-15% for a private sale. About 6 sold last year for $1,500+/- on eBay, so again, deduct the sales commission, etc., for a personal sale.
I think $1,200 is a fair price for an original âshelf queenâ.
One solution to that problem is to ask the seller to pay for any upgrades and deduct them from the selling price.
The only upgrades I know about are mentioned above - weights on the outer ends of the driving axles get loose, and the drive train ratio is too high. Not sure what you can do about either.
Been a while since I was on here and posted. I live in the UK and have a fair few of Bachmannâs âSpectrumâ Fn3 scale locos. They all used to run track power DC, now all battery/RC with sound. At 70 my back and knees canât be doing with all the track cleaning. I have 2 of the K-27âs, which were both bought 2nd hand as âshelf queensâ some 15 + years ago. Not wishing to sound unpricipled but I think most potential buyers of these locos will not be aware of âissuesâ as percived by others here. Yes, I have heard about the gearing mods but I have never had any concerns in this area when running. Getting it around a sub 8ft circle (7ft), without some derailments, has never been an issue. Their hauling power, in stock form, over the grades that existed on my line were never seemed compromised.
In other words, unless the buyer raises the issue donât broach it. If it becomes a âdeal breakerâ, i.e. itâs not going the remain a shelf queen and reservations are made by buyer, negociate or walk away and wait for the right buyer to turn up. A Bachmann K-27, unmolested, track powered with claimed low milage here selling for around $1000. More if you you have DCC or battery and sound conversions added. But then these models are more ânicheâ products here, without an active market to push prices. Unless you want one. Max